PA 07/09
As the conclusion to Chile's hotly contested election looms this weekend, dozens of leading experts on politics in the Americas are preparing for a unique global gathering at The University of Nottingham.
Controversial international politics and linguistics expert Noam Chomsky will lead the key-note speakers at the three day event.
'The Pink Tide: Reconfiguring politics, power and political economy in the Americas?' will run from 22 January to 24 January 2010.
The Pink Tide is a term used to describe the increasing shift to the left in North, Central and South American politics.
The conference is being organised by the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), based in the School of Politics and International Relations at The University of Nottingham.
The conference will see more than 60 contributors from 13 countries presenting in paper format, workshops, open forums, round-table debates and through film, performance and music.
Topics on the table will include the political economy of the Pink Tide and social movement knowledge production in the Americas.
Dr Sara Motta, conference co-ordinator from the CSSGJ said: “There have been radical changes in the Americas over recent years.
“The unprecedented development of social movements and grass roots democracy and the move away from North American ideals are major changes. It is estimated that more than 350 million people are living under left-wing governments in the Americas.
“We believe that it's important to increase our understanding of such political processes to enable us to contribute to the furtherance of more inclusive democracy and development in the region and beyond, including here in the UK.
“What's particularly exciting about the conference is that we're bringing together academic experts and the people who are running grass roots movements and communities developing some of the most innovative forms of participation and politics in the world.”
Noam Chomsky will appear via live video-link from his base in the United States. The famous educationalist received a faculty position at MIT in 1955 and has been teaching there ever since. He was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in 1961. The Department of Linguistics and Philosophy was created in 1976 and is still Chomsky's home department at MIT.
Other keynote speakers include John Holloway, Liam Kane, William Robinson and Marina Sitrin.
John Holloway is a Professor at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades “Alfonso Vélez Pliego” in the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico. His most important book is Change the World without taking Power: the Meaning of Revolution Today. His new book, Crack Capitalism will be published in the spring.
Liam Kane is a senior lecturer in the Department of Adult and Continuing Education at the University of Glasgow. His duties are divided between teaching modern languages, organising a large language programme of language courses for adults, and teaching and researching about ‘popular’ adult education, with a particular interest in Latin America. He has travelled extensively in Latin America, has participated in a number of popular education forums in Brazil and his publications include a book on Popular Education and Social Change in Latin America.
William Robinson is a Professor of Sociology, Global and International Studies Latin American and Iberian Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Marina Sitrin is a writer, lawyer, teacher, student and dreamer. She is the author of Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina, co-editor of Insurgent Democracies: Latin America’s New Powers. Marina has spent the past year working in Cuba while writing a book on contemporary life in Cuba. Marina’s work has been published in, the International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Znet, Yes! Magazine, Upping the Anti, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, alternet.org, and Prensa Latina, among others.
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Notes to editors: Interviews can be arranged, please see contact details at the end of this release.
For the full schedule of events visit http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cssgj/PinkTideConference/index.php
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